CRT Candle Range Theory Setup Finder

CRT Candle Range Theory Setup Finder marks CRT setups on your chart: the range candle, the sweep, the 50% level and the target, on up to three timeframes at once, in New York time on any broker. On the chart and in alerts it calls itself CRT Setup Finder.

Who it is for

Traders who read CRT on the 4-hour and daily candles. Traders who only take the 1, 5 and 9 AM New York 4-hour candles, or the 2, 6 and 10 AM candles on index futures. Daily CRT traders who want an entry on a lower timeframe (CISD, MSS or a fair value gap). Turtle soup traders who work with the high and low of a block of candles. Scalpers who read an H1 or M15 CRT and enter on M1 to M5. And anyone who wants an alert when a setup forms instead of watching three timeframes. Expert Advisor developers can read the setups from the indicator buffers.

It runs on any symbol and timeframe; our tests were on gold (two brokers), EURUSD, GBPUSD, BTCUSD and a US stock CFD. It doesn't trade and it doesn't place orders.

How a setup is read

C1 is the range candle, wicks included. C2 trades beyond one side of C1 and closes back inside the range. A high taken gives a sell setup, a low taken gives a buy setup. The 50% of C1 is the first target when it is still ahead of the entry, and the other side of C1 is the target. The stop reference is beyond C2's sweep. A candle that closes beyond the sweep before an entry cancels the setup.

New York time on any broker

Many CRT traders read the 4-hour candles that open at 1, 5 and 9 AM New York time, and the New York day. Broker server time is often different and changes with summer time on its own dates. The indicator measures your broker's server time from the chart itself (the weekly close is Friday 17:00 New York; every week of history is checked) and builds true New York candles from H1 bars. The panel shows what it found, for example "server GMT+2, US summer" and "measured, 57 of 57 weeks". You can also set the server time by hand. Broker candles are available too.

What you can switch

• Range: previous candle, mother candle with inside bars, or the high and low of a block of candles (turtle soup).
• C2 close: back inside, beyond 50%, in the swept half, or open and close inside.
• Sweep size, C2 size, range candle body and size (ATR), candles that take both sides.
• C3 confirmation, range candle hours in New York time (for example 1 and 5 AM), trading days, sweep time windows.
• Key levels the sweep takes: previous New York day and week high/low, Asia, London and New York session high/low, swing high/low. Shown as tags or required.
• Bias: previous New York day, New York midnight open, or a higher layer's open setup.
• Entry reference: C2 close, retrace into C2, back at the swept level, or a chart-timeframe CISD, MSS or FVG.
• Stop buffer, TP3, expiry, lot size for a risk percentage.
• Presets: Classic, A+, 1-5-9 New York H4, Daily, Turtle soup, Scalper.

Alerts

Each can be switched on or off: CRT formed (when C2 has closed; with C3 confirmation on, a second alert when C3 confirms it), sweep in progress (while C2 is still open), entry, 50% reached, target reached, and the end of a setup (stop, invalid or expired). They come as a popup, a sound, a push notification to the MetaTrader app on your phone, or an e-mail. Each event of a setup is sent once. Setups that were already in the history, and sweeps already under way, when the indicator loads or reloads (a timeframe or symbol change) send nothing. The sweep alert comes while the candle is still open. The others come with the first tick of the next chart candle, so a stop or target touched inside a candle is reported when that candle has closed, and Friday's last candle is reported when the market opens again. This was watched on a live demo account on 26 October 2026 (XAUUSD and EURUSD, M5, M15 and H1 layers).

On the chart

Range lines with 50% (and quarters), range box, sweep mark, labels with timeframe, direction, New York hour and key-level tags, entry, stop and target lines with R values (for open setups; when nothing is open, for the last trade), higher-timeframe candles to the right of price, New York candle outlines, previous day and week levels, session boxes, the New York midnight open and 1-5-9 AM lines. A dashboard shows the New York clock, the server time found, every layer's open candle and its last setup, and history counts on request. Buttons switch each layer (its drawings and arrows), the trade lines, the levels, the higher-timeframe candles, the counts and the scanner. The optional scanner lists the last setup on other symbols; click a row and the chart switches to that symbol with the same settings. The symbol you attached it to stays in the first row, so one click brings the chart back.

No repaint, and how that was checked

A setup exists only after C2 has closed. Its buffer values are written once and are not changed later; the arrows only hide and show again when you switch a layer or the Arrows input. A sweep that is still forming can be shown as a dotted outline; it is never an arrow or a buffer value. This was checked in the Strategy Tester by an Expert Advisor that read all buffers at every bar close and compared them with a full re-read at the end: 3,579 bars on XAUUSD M15, 78 signals, 0 changed, 0 removed, 0 added later. A chart reload gives the same setups as the bar-by-bar run (checked field by field on ten settings on gold, and with weekly candles on BTCUSD, which trades all weekend).

Limits

It does not trade. A setup is a pattern, not a forecast; many CRTs fail and the history counts on the panel are counts, not results. The server time cannot be measured on a symbol that trades all weekend (crypto): it then uses a forex symbol from Market Watch or the manual setting. New York candles need a chart timeframe of H1 or lower when your broker's candles are not on New York time. In the Strategy Tester no alerts are sent and the scanner doesn't run; setups, buffers and, in visual mode, the drawings and the panel work there.

User guide

Start in one minute

Attach it to an M15 chart of the symbol you trade. With the defaults you get H4 and D1 CRTs in New York time. Look at the panel's third line: it says how the server time was found and how many weekly closes matched. If it doesn't say "measured" (for example "from the clock, no weekend in the data"), set the server time in the inputs (group Time). Then either pick a preset or keep Custom and set your own rules.

The panel, line by line

• "CRT Setup Finder | Custom": the preset in use.
• "NY 21:06 Mon | server GMT+2, US summer": New York time now and your broker's offset.
• "server time: measured, 57 of 57 weeks, EURUSD": how the offset was found and on which symbol.
• One row per layer, for example "H4 NY ▲ stop | forming ▲ | 2h 36m": the layer's last setup (here a buy that ended at its stop), "forming ▲" when the open candle is sweeping a low right now (not a signal yet), then the time left in that candle. "off: needs a chart timeframe of H4 or lower" or "off: not aligned with this chart, use H1 or lower" means that layer can't be read on this chart timeframe.
• With Stats on, for example on gold M15 on 27 October: "H4 NY 20d: 27 CRT | target 9 | 50% 13 | invalid 0" and "entries 27: target 9, stop 17". These are counts over the history days, not a backtest.
• While history loads you see one line such as "loading M1 history"; it goes away on its own.

States in labels and rows: wait C3, valid (no word), live, 50%, target, stop, "50%, stop", invalid, expired, missed (the target was reached before the entry).

Buttons

L1, L2, L3 switch each layer's drawings and arrows (a grey button is a layer this chart timeframe can't show). Trade shows the entry, stop and target lines. Levels shows the previous day and week high/low, session boxes, the New York midnight open and the 1, 5, 9 AM lines. Ghost shows the higher-timeframe candles right of price. Stats shows the history counts. Scan opens the scanner. The last button folds the panel to its title and buttons. Button states are kept for each chart.

Presets

A preset replaces the CRT timeframes and rules (never colours or panel settings). Pick Custom to use your own.

• Classic CRT: H4 and D1 New York, previous candle range, close back inside, entry at the C2 close.
• A+ CRT: H4 and D1, range candle body at least 50%, C2 at most 70% of the range, C2 opens and closes in the swept half, a key level required, entry at the C2 close.
• 1-5-9 NY H4: H4 and D1 in New York time, only the 1 AM and 5 AM range candles (so C2 is the 5 AM or 9 AM candle), CISD entry.
• Daily CRT: D1 and H4, MSS entry.
• Turtle soup: chart timeframe, range = high and low of the last 20 candles, entry at the C2 close.
• Scalper: H1 and M15, CISD entry, expiry 4 candles. Use it on M1 to M5 charts.

Time

Candle time: New York (default) or broker server time, for layers above H1. New York day starts at 17:00 (forex and metals, gives the 1-5-9 AM H4 candles), 18:00 (index futures, 2-6-10 AM) or 00:00. With 18:00 or 00:00 the short Sunday evening session is part of Monday's daily candle, so there's no Sunday daily candle on markets that close for the weekend. Broker server time: Auto measures it; you can also pick GMT+2 with US summer time, GMT+0, or Manual (offset in winter and the summer-time rule). Symbol to measure on: leave empty and it uses the chart symbol, then a EURUSD-type symbol from Market Watch.

CRT timeframes

Up to three layers, each Off, Chart timeframe, or M15 to MN1, with its own colour. A layer smaller than the chart timeframe is switched off with a note on the panel. When two layers give a signal on the same chart bar, the larger timeframe keeps the buffer value.

CRT rules

Range: previous candle, mother candle (C1 plus up to N inside bars, then the sweep; classic setups are found as well), or block (the high and low of the last N candles). C2 close: back inside the range, beyond the 50%, open and close in the swept half, or open and close inside the range. Sweep minimum and maximum: how far C2 trades beyond the range, in % of the range (0 = any). C2 size maximum, range candle body minimum and range size minimum in ATR(14) of the layer. Skip a C2 that takes both sides (on by default). C3 confirmation: none, C3 closes beyond the C2 close, beyond the 50%, or breaks the other end of C2, within the candles you allow. Setup cancelled when the layer candle closes beyond the sweep (default), when a chart candle closes beyond it, or when price trades beyond it.

Filters

Range candle New York hours, for example "1,5". C2 trading days, for example "1-5" (1 = Monday). Sweep windows in New York time, for example "02:00-05:00,07:00-10:00". Key levels taken by the sweep (the sweep goes through the level and C2 closes back on the other side): previous New York day and week high/low, Asia (20:00-24:00), London (02:00-05:00) and New York (07:00-10:00) session high/low, swing high/low of the layer. Off, shown as tags (PD, PW, Sess, Swing), or required. Bias: previous New York day direction, buy below and sell above the New York midnight open, or only the direction of a higher layer's open setup.

Entry, stop, targets

Entry: none (levels only), at the C2 close, a limit at a retrace into C2 (the % from the C2 close to the sweep), a limit back at the swept level, or on the chart timeframe a CISD (a close through the open of the candles that made the sweep), an MSS (a close through the last swing, swing size in chart bars) or an FVG (a limit at the fair value gap of the move back inside). Layer candles to wait for the entry, after that the setup expires. Stop beyond the sweep plus a buffer in % of the range. TP1 is the 50% (only when it's ahead of the entry), TP2 the other side of the range, TP3 an extension in % of the range. Layer candles before an open setup expires, counted from the candle of the entry (with Entry none, from C2). Lot size for a risk % of your balance (shown on the entry line, 0 = off).

Display

Days of history to find and count (20). Setups drawn per layer, newest first (20). Arrows, finished setups, labels on finished setups, 50% line, 25% and 75% lines, range box, labels, trade lines, the dotted sweep in progress, the higher-timeframe candles (and how many), New York candle outlines, levels at start and which levels, days of levels, font size and every colour.

Panel and scanner

Dashboard and buttons on or off, counts at start, the corner (any of the four), colours. Scanner shown at start, its symbols ("EURUSD,GBPUSD,XAUUSD", empty = the first symbols of Market Watch) and the maximum rows (12). The scanner reads one symbol per second on the largest layer in use and gives "▲ now", "▼ 2 ago", "-" (none in the last three candles), "forming" or "no data yet" while that symbol's history loads. Its rows use the CRT rules without the key-level and bias filters, so a row can show a setup your chart filters out. Click a row and this chart switches to that symbol; when an Expert Advisor is on the chart, a new chart opens instead, with your default template.

Alerts

Pick the events (formed, sweep in progress, entry, 50% and target, the end) and the ways (popup, sound and its file, push, e-mail). Push needs your MetaQuotes ID: in MetaTrader 5 open Tools > Options > Notifications, tick Enable Push Notifications and enter the ID shown in the MetaTrader app on your phone. E-mail needs Tools > Options > Email with your mail server. Two alerts from our gold test on 27 October: "CRT Setup Finder XAUUSD M5 buy CRT formed: range 4012.41 - 4013.20, sweep 4011.70" and "CRT Setup Finder XAUUSD H1 buy CRT 2PM Swing 50% reached" (2PM is the New York hour of the range candle, Swing the key level its sweep took).

For Expert Advisors

Buffers: 0 buy arrow, 1 sell arrow (both follow the layer buttons on a chart; an Expert Advisor should read 2, 6 and 7), 2 entry, 3 stop, 4 50% (EMPTY_VALUE when the 50% is not ahead of the entry), 5 target, 6 direction (+1 buy, -1 sell), 7 layer. Values are on the bar where the setup became known (read shift 1 after a bar closes); EMPTY_VALUE elsewhere. One signal per bar: when two layers give one on the same bar, the larger timeframe keeps it.

Try it first

Run the free demo in the Strategy Tester in visual mode on the symbol and timeframe you trade, and look at the setups it marks against your own reading. The history counts on the panel show how often each setting finds a setup on your symbol.

Support

Ask in the comments of this product or by MQL5 message.

This is the launch price. It will be raised later.